Sri Lanka’s former president Ranil Wickremesinghe was arrested on Friday on charges of misusing state funds, police said.
The 76 year old was arrested after he went to the CID office in Colombo to give a statement about his trip to London last year to attend his wife’s graduation, according to reports. The police have not officially confirmed the arrest, and Wickremesinghe’s office did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
A lawyer by profession, Wickremesinghe served as Sri Lanka’s prime minister six times, the most in the country’s history. He became president in 2022, when Sri Lanka was in the grip of its worst financial crisis, after mass protests forced then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.
Wickremesinghe’s tenure as president from 2022-25 was filled with controversies. In 2023, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka ruled that Wickremesinghe had acted “unlawfully” by delaying local government elections. He argued that the delay was needed to focus on fixing the economy, but the court said it violated people’s right to vote. Many saw this as a way for him to avoid facing the public during a period of anger and hardship.
Wickremesinghe comes from a well-known political and business family with strong media interests. His political career began early – at just 29, he was appointed the youngest cabinet minister in Sri Lanka by his uncle, then-president Junius Jayewardene, in 1978. In 1994, after several senior leaders of his party were assassinated, he rose to become the head of the United National Party (UNP).
Throughout his presidency, he also faced corruption investigations and political attempts to remove him through no-confidence votes. Still, he managed to hold on, insisting his policies were necessary to save the country, according to the multiple media reports.